Materialism Quotes

• Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions.

  Peace Pilgrim

  Birthday, Peace, Age

  Peace Pilgrim (1992). “Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words”, p.19, Friends of Peace PIlgrim

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• Materialism is toxic to happiness, and we are losing our connection to the natural world.

  James Gustave Speth

  Toxic, Connections, World

  "Book World: 'The Bridge at the Edge of the World'". Live chat, www.washingtonpost.com. April 29, 2008.

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• The best things in life aren't things.

  Art Buchwald

  Love, Inspirational, Life

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• Materialism is the only form of distraction from true bliss.

  Douglas Horton

  Motivational, Success, Simplicity

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• These days, in our materialistic culture, many people are led to believe that money is the ultimate source of happiness. Consequently, when they don’t have enough of it they feel let down. Therefore, it is important to let people know that they have the source of contentment and happiness within themselves, and that it is related to nurturing our natural inner values.

  Dalai Lama

  Life, Happiness, Happy

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• The day you stop racing, is the day you win the race.

  Bob Marley

  Love, Inspirational, Life

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• A materialistic person is ruthless with other people but kind to himself. A spiritual person is ruthless with himself but kind to everybody else.

  Jaggi Vasudev

  Spiritual, People, Humanity

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• Americans consume three quarters of the world's anti-depressants because materialism will never bring happiness.

  Shmuley Boteach

  Three, World, Quarters

  Source: www.beliefnet.com

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• Materialism is not fundamentally an economic problem, but a cultural one... a spiritual issue. It runs to the depths of our souls, and, for this reason, needs to be understood less in terms of budgets or fiscal cycles and more in terms of where we locate the sacred, of where we search for meaning and transcendence, and of how we think about justice, equality, and the future of our world.

  Robert Wuthnow

  Running, Spiritual, Thinking

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• The world says: "You have needs - satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more." This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Suicide, Believe, Envy

  "The Idiot". Book by Fyodor Dostoevsky (p. 2151), 1874.

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• The most terrible thing about materialism, even more terrible than its proneness to violence, is its boredom, from which sex alcohol, drugs, all devices for putting out the accusing light of reason and suppressing the unrealizable aspirations of love, offer a prospect of deliverance.

  Malcolm Muggeridge

  Sex, Light, Boredom

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• ‎In today's materialistic world there is a risk of people becoming slaves to money, as though they were simply cogs in a huge money-making machine. This does nothing for human dignity, freedom, and genuine well-being. Wealth should serve humanity, and not the other way around.

  Dalai Lama

  People, Humanity, Risk

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• The nightmare of materialism, which has turned the life of the universe into an evil, useless game, is not yet past; it holds the awakening soul still in its grip.

  Wassily Kandinsky

  Past, Games, Evil

  Wassily Kandinsky (2015). “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”, p.15, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• We live in a world of things, and our only connection with them is that we know how to manipulate or to consume them.

  Erich Fromm

  History, Growth, Connections

  Erich Fromm (2013). “Sane Society Ils 252”, p.134, Routledge

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• There is no such thing as material covetousness. All covetousness is spiritual. ...Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.

  Mark Twain

  Spiritual, Greed, Want

  Mark Twain (1973). “What Is Man? and Other Philosophical Writings”, p.202, Univ of California Press

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• There must be more to life than having everything.

  Maurice Sendak

  Life, Environmental, Climate Change

  Maurice Sendak, William Knowlton Zinsser (1998). “Worlds of Childhood: The Art and Craft of Writing for Children”, p.25, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens.

  Peace Pilgrim

  Unnecessary, Burden, Possession

  Peace Pilgrim (1981). “Steps Toward Inner Peace”, p.15, Friends of Peace PIlgrim

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• We know that material things don't offer contentment, but we still buy more-more of the props and gadgets our culture tells us we must have in order to be happy and "happening." Our addiction to consumption distracts us from seeing that we are disconnected from ourselves, from our truth and from one another. Any euphoria we gain from our material gains is fleeting at best.

  Susan L. Taylor

  Order, Addiction, Contentment

  Susan L. Taylor (2010). “Lessons in Living”, p.149, Anchor

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• Somebody said to me, 'But the Beatles were anti-materialistic.' That's a huge myth. John and I literally used to sit down and say, 'Now, let's write a swimming pool.'

  Paul McCartney

  Funny, Money, Writing

  "Paul McCartney: One for the Road". Interview with David Fricke, www.rollingstone.com. February 08, 1990.

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• Countries like ours are full of people who have all of the material comforts they desire, yet lead lives of quiet (and at times noisy) desperation, understanding nothing but the fact that there is a hole inside them and that however much food and drink they pour into it, however many motorcars and television sets they stuff it with, however many well-balanced children and loyal friends they parade around the edges of it. . . it aches!

  Bernard Levin

  Country, Children, Food

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• There is one advantage to having nothing, it never needs repair.

  Frank A. Clark

  Needs, Advantage

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• Materialism is an identity crisis.

  Bryant H. McGill

  Identity, Crisis, Identity Crisis

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• It is not materialism that is the chief curse of the world, as pastors teach, but idealism. Men get into trouble by taking their visions and hallucinations too seriously.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Vision, World

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• Anything you lose automatically doubles in value.

  Mignon McLaughlin

  Life, Murphys Law, Loses

  Mignon McLaughlin (2014). “Aperçus: The Aphorisms of Mignon McLaughlin”, p.101, BookBaby

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• Neither idealists nor materialists are right; we must take both idea and expression.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Expression, Ideas, Idealist

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.3116, Manonmani Publishers

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